


Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants

by Cxmill



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Ancient Celts, Celtic Mythology & Folklore, Cernunnos is a smug fellow, Eren will still turn Titan but will look different, Eventual Levi/Eren Yeager, Gen, Hanji is a bab, He has been asleep for a very very long time, I spell Yeager as Jeager, Long-Haired Eren Yeager, No Beta, Non-binary character, Old Gods, Pagan Gods, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Tall Eren Yeager, Tattooed Eren Yeager, cernunnos is that cat surrounded by knives, he likes his human form, he needs some lovin he is lonely, i would die for Hanji, if not they are very close due to reasons which will appear later because spoilers, levi is a grumpy bean, maybe not, probably, same for Erwin, why? Because I am doing German and have learnt “J” is pronounced as “Y”, “w” is pronounced “v”
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23503540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cxmill/pseuds/Cxmill
Summary: Carla Jaeger knew she would die and so with her last moments on this Earth she summons an ancient being, something more ancient than the walls, something more ancient than the Titan’s themselves. Carla sacrifices herself and the being decides to grant her prayers, having woken up from a nap lasting thousands of years. Now Cernunnos has to adapt to this life while hiding his God hood from others.“The gods envy us,They envy us because we’re mortal,Because any moment may be our last.Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed.”
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

A scream tore through the air as a building collapsed on a young woman, she panted as the building pierced through her body, blood seeping out around her. She silently prayed hazel eyes closed, prayers in a forgotten language to a forgotten God. A rumble echoed around her as the very ground beneath the woman split open, and a shadowy figure walked towards her, its face flickering between human faces before settling on one similar to her own but with viridian eyes. As he approached her she could hear the full cosmic roar of space and what sounded like the wind blowing through trees.  
“Mortal, what is it you wish, you have awoken me, prayed to me, no one has done in so long that I was sure I was hearing things, I have not heard my name in a very long time and so I have decided to listen to you. Speak.” The figure knelt down in front of her, it’s voice like thunder, louder than the cracking of the Earth she had heard only seconds ago. Scrap the shadow, it’s body looked like the very night sky she had been looking up only hours ago.  
“H-how? I though..no I must focus, please, I took in a young girl, she is not safe here, protect her!”  
The figure’s face smiled sadly, it’s body shifted into a boy’s, probably no older than fifteen. It bit it’s finger and wiped the blood across her forehead and down her nose.  
“Your wish is my command, but first I must protect my humans..there is nothing I can do for you, do you know this?”  
“Y-yes I do, please, just save her!” Her voice cracked and the thundering footsteps of a titan walked towards them. The god looked up and stared at the titan.  
“It looks so similar to you mortals but it betrays you, it feeds off of you...for me to protect this girl I will need a sacrifice...can you offer me something?”  
“My life.”  
“What? You do not want to try and live?”  
“You said there is nothing you can do for me, take my life, save her please, save all of humanity, please it’s all I ask, I will give you my life if you can promise me you will save her.!” She begged, tears falling down her cheeks as the titan leant down towards.  
“If that is what you truly desire then your wish has been granted, I, Cernunnos God of death, Master of the Hunt will save humanity.” The god stepped back. His clothes changed from a tunic and wolf skin to a plain brown shirt and green trousers, his hair fell around his shoulder blades, golden beads flashed in the sun as he watched the titan pick up a quiet Carla, it’s big meaty hands grabbed her and broke her, biting down on her head. The blood splattered on his face and a sick grin broke across his tanned skin.

The god plunged his hand into the earth, pulling out a glaive. He leant forward before sprinting towards the titan, the earth cracked in his wake, he jumped up towards the titan, the creature looked up at him as Cernunnos held the glaive in hand, the god fell towards the titan, green eyes glinted, a deep red circled his slit pupils, brown hair flew out behind him as he sliced the titan’s nape. He fell to the ground, laughing as he did so, he missed this, the thrill of the kill, the pure ecstasy he felt when blood rained down upon him, this is what he was made for, killing.

Cernunnos smelt the air, picking up a live scent of the woman he had helped over the smell of blood. He ran towards it, his body felt new, alive, thumping, flowing with energy, he wanted to kill all of these titans, wanted to be surrounded with their rotting corpses as he had been many times before, he wanted to hunt them, to destroy them, to make sure they would never see the light of day again. He stopped when he heard crying, the scent was stronger now.  
“Hello, are you hurt?” He whispered out and span around, searching for the source of the sobs.  
“H-help me please.” Geat, he thought bitterly, another language. The god knelt down and gently looked over towards the voice’s direction, spotting a mop of black hair and a flash of red fabric.  
“C’mere young’ un, we must hurry. This is no place for a child.” He spoke softly, even if she couldn't understand him, he hoped she could understand his intentions. It did the trick as the young girl looked over at the brunette, she quickly ran towards him, tears falling down her cheeks.  
“Please, help me, Carla, I can’t find her please help me!” She begged and clung onto his arm. The brunette picked her up, holding her tightly before running in the direction of humans, where it smelt strongest, that meant there was probably a way to escape. It didn’t take him long to reach the evacuation point. The brunette shoved his way towards the front of the crowd, people tugged at his clothes, yanked on his hair, wailed in his ears as he pushed past. The god stopped at the edge of the river to only see the boat departing. He was determined to honour Carla’s dying wish. Cernunnos stepped back before running towards the bank and jumping over the wall. The shocked gasps and shouts of people behind him flooded his ears as he leapt towards the boat, he landed and the boat rocked. He re-adjusted the girl, tearing his gaze to look down at her as she was now pressed against his chest.  
“Y-your n...a-” His sad attempt at the foreign language was cut off  
“Mikasa, my name is Mikasa.” The girl looked up at him, Cernunnos smiled, he would try harder in this language, it held many pretty words.


	2. Chapter 2

Cernunnos quietly sat huddled up against the corner of a small room, two blankets lay on the floor, Mikasa lay on one and a boy named Armin on the other. After getting off the boat Mikasa had run into her friend, his grandfather had been forgotten in his bed due to his old age, so the boy had stayed with them. It had been three years since the fall of Maria. Cernunnos had grown physically, only to pass as a human, now standing taller and more muscular, he had cut his hair after Maria, it had grown down to the nape of his neck now, the brown locks hung around his face. Mikasa and Armin had grown as well, Mikasa had turned into a very beautiful young girl, she was taller now, her hair had grown and she looked more womanly while the same for Armin, the god chuckled as he remembered the poor buys reaction to being catcalled..that was funny. 

Today was the day that they would enter the army, Cernunnos was determined to kill all the titans, he planned on saving humanity and to do that he would have to join a group called the Survey Corps. He sighed as he remembered his first meeting with them. A young red-headed figure had run into him, he had steadied them before being punched in the face by a short angry man who was spewing words at a pace too fast for the poor god to understand, this left him annoyed, so annoyed that he caused a massive crack to appear under his feet. He had stood up, picked up the man, told him he was a bad child and had placed him on a pile of crates before walking off, in the God's eyes it was fair but according to the court what he had done was wrong and he had to publicly apologise to the angry short man.

Mikasa awoke, she sat up and smiled at the brunette.  
“Cern, good morning.”  
“Maidin mhaith ‘kasa, are you ready for the day.” The green-eyed man handed her a pear, being the god of the hunt, animals and earth meant that fruit was easy, this area of Trost’s agriculture had exploded once he had arrived, the town became very wealthy.  
“Yes, although I can't help but worry, I hope all three of us get in, you are strong Cern...I fear they may pick you out of the rest and send you straight to battle.”  
“Kasa, you know I cannot be killed by any of your silly human ways, a god can only kill a god remember.”  
“Yes, I know that I just worry.” The girl rolled up her blanket and tied it in place with some ribbon, they ate in silence as Armin awoke, quickly putting away his blanket and getting dressed.  
“Good morning Mikasa, Cernunnos, how are you both doing, excited for today?” The blonde spoke softly, blinking slowly.  
“I'm doing well Armin.” The girl giggled “and yes I am excited.”  
“I’m doing good, always excited to hold a weapon.” The god grinned and gave him a thumbs up.  
“For a god of fertility, you sure do like weapons.” The blonde sat down beside the other two, gently picking up an apple and munching on it.  
“That's because I'm also the god of wealth, the seasons, the hunt, animals, agriculture and growth, I've been known for my violence young’ un.” The brunette spoke proudly, after being one of the first to ever walk across the Earth, he had been blessed by the king with these jobs, he had once walked around with long hair, gold beads, a bow and arrow at his side, skins had once hung from his body, robes of greens, browns a black had adorned him, big antlers sat proudly on his head but now he sat in the body of a teenager with shorter locks, fewer golden beads and a gold band sat on each bicep, smaller versions of his torcs. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the big tattoo which spread over his back, it was of stag with a snake wrapped around its antlers, standing on the top of a tattoo of the wheel of the year, he had been given it when he had first come to be, a representation of his powers you could say. He also had a Celtic design around each wrist, this was more for decoration than anything meaningful but he still loved the designs.

They stood in front of a man, the man had grumpily asked them for their ages, when Cernunnos had said he was fifteen the man and the gal to not believe him, claiming that he was too old looking to be anywhere near fifteen, this had lead to Cernunnos arguing with the man, only getting more angry, unaware of a short man and a red-headed humans watching him.  
“I am fifteen, there is nothing you can do to prove otherwise!”  
“I’ll be sending you away for harassment if you don’t shut your mouth!”  
“Well, maybe you should before I rip your pathetic, useless head off, you filthy human.” He snarled, lips drawn back to show sharp fangs, his eyes glowing a sharp green colour, luckily the man was drunk enough not to realise. A hand placed itself on Cernunnos’s shoulder, he looked around to only stare straight at the red-headed human, they grinned.  
“Hey now, I was there when this little guy.” they yanked on his ear “was born, last time I checked it’s only been fifteen years from that day!”  
The drunken soldier blinked before grumbling.  
“Alright, go stand with them.” The man gestured towards a line of young people. Cernunnos turned to smile at the human, placing a gold coin with antlers on one side and a snake on the other in her hand.  
“Thank you very much human, I am grateful for your help.” He smiled at them, gently, his eyes glowed, causing them to breathe in harshly, eyes widening, jaw dropped open. Cernunnos chuckled before running over to join Mikasa and Armin, slinging an arm around each of them. Pure joy radiating off of him, completely unaware to the sharp grey eyes boring holes in the back of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, torcs are ancient Celtic jewellery usually work around the neck or biceps. The wheel of the year is explainable in itself, the snake and stag represent two of the animal species depicted with Cernunnos. The tattoos around his wrist are Celtic designs and I may do one that covers his arm, such as a sleeve tattoo but right now I’m not sure. Cernunnos was also known as “The Horned One” which is why he had Antlers in his little flashback memory big. Maidin mhaith means good morning. Yes, I was talking about Levi, Cernunnos lifted him up. For reference I think I’m gonna make Eren quite tall, possibly 6’1 due to the height of the god and Eren having to be compressed ya know?


	3. Chapter 3

Cernunnos sat quietly while running his fingers through Mikasa’s hair  
“I think your last name should be Jaeger,” Mikasa spoke softly, the others were asleep. They had been placed in a room, genders separate to Cernunnos had sneaked in and was currently hiding in the shadows of the young girl's bed.  
“Why?”  
“It means hunter, you also need a first name, Cernunnos will attract too much attention.”  
“Oh? What do you propose then little songbird” The god chuckled and scratched her head.  
“How about Eren, it means..erm holy man! Carla always said if she had a boy she would name him Eren.” The girl frowned and looked out the window, staring out at the forest.  
“Songbird.” He gently grabbed her cheeks, guiding her head so she was looking at him, he smiled softly “If that is what you would like, then so be it, my name is now Eren Jaeger, in memory of Carla Jaeger.” The girl hugged him tightly and Eren sighed contently.

After talking with Mikasa, Eren now was walking towards the forest, green eyes glowing, the trees bent around him, forming a tunnel, deer looked at him, stags almost seemed to bow. The owls all called out to him in the night, the forest welcomed him, happy for their god to come back. The god stood in a small clearing, moonlight lighting up the area, small moonflowers glowed in the night, swaying in the wind. Cernunnos stood there, two long horns protruded from his head, curving their way into the sky, his hair fell down to his lower back, pupils slit like a cat, ears lengthened into elf-like ears. The god grinned as his clothes changed to his normal robes, a wolfskin cape moved with the wind as the god broke into a dance, feet thumped against the ground, his arms flung out, his skin was black up until his elbows, nails turned into sharp claws. In his wake left lush green grass as Cernunnos flung about. 

The god paused his dance and turned to look into the dark forest  
“I know you are there, do you wish to join me, young mortal?” Cernunnos grinned as he heard the human gasp, they walked forward and stared at him, he was taller now, standing at 9 '0, he chuckled as the human gaped at him, their red hair now darker under the moonlight.  
“Little human do not be afraid, you are a hunter like me, join me in my dance!” He held out his hand which the human slowly grasped in their own.  
“Who are you? What are you? You’re not a titan, no you’re different..”  
“Your questions will come when they are ready to be answered, but for now you may know that my name in Cernunnos and that I am not a titan, something far more ancient than your minds to comprehend.” He bowed and looked at the person standing before him, he could not tell their if they where dangerous, they smelt neither male nor female, some of his old humans used to smell like this, it was no different. 

The god began to dance again, music slowly flowed with the wind as his feet hit the floor, the human grinned maniacally before joining in with him, they spun around the clearing, the human danced weirdly, more hip movements and less foot pounding, he found it odd but he remembered his cousin Artemis used to have humans that danced like that, draped in silk and glitter. The god laughed as the human danced around him, the trees seemed to dance with them, swaying around. Wolves howled and jumped around, stags and deer galloped around them, he felt the pull of restrained horses bucking around, neighing in response to the ancient God’s call.

They danced until the sun came up. The god looked at the human who was panting hard.  
“Human it is time for me to go, I am not sure if you will see me again though I will protect you in battle, my name is important, titans fear it, I am the one true hunter, their predator.” He crouched down to their level.  
“Your name is Cernunnos..my name is Hanji Zöe, I am a quadrant leader in the survey corps.”  
“Hmm, your name is nice, it means life, the gift of gods.” Cernunnos smiled at the human before standing up again, turning away to leave the forest, he disappeared into the morning sun, running back to the barracks, shifting back to his human form.  
“Cadet Jaeger, where have you been?” Keith Shadis angered voice made his happy emotions crumble.  
“Morning run sir, good for health!” Eren saluted at the angry instructor, a grin on his face.  
“If you like running so much then twenty laps around the track!” The man shouted angrily, his spit hitting Eren on the shoulder.  
“Now?”  
“Yes! Now!” The man hit Eren around the head, the boy ran off to the track, starting to run around the track

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter was suspiciously short, sorry about that. What cernunnos is referring to when he talks of Hanji’s scent, is that he remembers other people in his old tribes having the same gender neutral scent, so he knows Hanji is “them” also Cernunnos’s true form was revealed. Will I one day do a jokey thing during his velvet shed so someone walks in on him shoving his antlers against the wall to get the velvet off....yes, yes I will. Will I perhaps give Eren a deer tail maybe? Perhaps I will during his velveting period, best believe this horny fool will have sex with anyone willing while in rut. Will I milk the whole “Eren is a stag” card? Yes, yes I believe I will.


	4. Chapter 4

A young black-haired boy stood in a clearing, a massive stag in front of him with huge glowing eyes, the rocks around him floated in the air, the wind blew through his clothes, he pulled his coat around him to try and keep warm, another hand kept the strong light from blinding him. The stag looked down at him before disappearing into the darkness.

Levi sat up in bed, panting, he hadn’t thought about that in years. His mother had once told him a story of the ancient Gods, ones that fought, raged through battle, raised the sun and the moon, ones that held the world up. Ever since first hearing of the story of the ancient god Cernunnos, he had dreamt of a large stag with glowing eyes, it was always the same, never changed. 

The short man climbed out of bed, grumbling at the sight of dust on the windowsill. He quickly grabbed and cloth and wiped it down before getting changed into his uniform. Lastly, he put on his cravat while staring at the mirror, his own tired face stared back at him, dark circles under his eyes, pale skin, black hair and grey, murky eyes. Levi sighed and fixed up his hair before walking out of his room, glaring at anyone who got too close to him, he could see them covered in grime, nobody here was clean, it was disgusting.  
“Leviiiii, Leviiii you are not going to believe what I saw last night!” He turned around to see Hanji running towards him, their hair askew, shirt buttoned wrongly, dirt on their fingers and boots. The man shuddered and stepped back  
“Stay the fuck away from me, you are covered in mud! It’s fucking disgusting Hanji!”   
“That doesn’t matter, you need to hear this Levi, I'll go get Erwin, meet me in the dining room please!” They ran off, leaving an angry Levi behind. He stomped his way to the dining room. 

Levi sat down on a table, a cup of tea in his hand and the local newspaper in the other, it was a new idea that the people of Sina had come up with, everybody could read about what was happening inside the walls, it was odd but at the same time rather amusing. He jumped slightly when Erwin and Hanji sat down.  
“Right, right, so last night I was out near the training corps site, in the woods, I was watching wildlife when I suddenly came across this, this thing, it was probably 9’0 and I was so sure it was a titan until I got a closer look, it had a human face but long black claws, two massive antlers sticking out its head, long hair that was held together by beads and clothes on! It was dancing. It spoke to me, it knew I was there! I asked what it was, who it was and if it was a titan, they said their name was Cernunnos and it wasn’t a titan but apparently ancient, it was awesome!”  
Levi narrowed his eyes, although he knew the name Cernunnos, he would not mention it.  
“How much have you been drinking?”  
“Nothing! Levi, Erwin, I’m not lying!”  
“Maybe Levi is right Hanji, you just saw something in the dark, possibly fell asleep.,” Erwin spoke softly at the scientist   
“I have proof, look!” they pulled out a gold coin with a snake on one side and antlers on the other, ‘くᛖᚱᚾᚢᛀᛀᛟᛊ’ was engraved under each symbol “And not only this, I looked in the library, where we have a book on life before the walls and look!” They slammed a book on the table, pointing at a coin drawn in the book, the same as the coin in her hand, underneath was a picture of a being with long hair, two antlers, a bow on its back, a glaide in its clawed hands, under the picture was the word Cernunnos. “I'm not lying, see!”  
“Hanji, if what you saw is true, this being could be incredibly dangerous, if it’s that old then we would need to kill it.” Erwin’s words sent shivers down Levi’s back, he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the picture, flashes of a large stag appeared in his mind.  
“But what if we can become friends with it? It could change the war Erwin, please! It didn’t harm me last night at all!”  
“Ngh, this pains me to say but they might be right Erwin, if it is as old as the book shows, then it may just be able to destroy all titans for good,” Levi grunted and brushed his fingers over the picture before recoiling, fingertips burning. If someone else saw they didn’t say anything.  
“Alright, if and only if! You can befriend this beast and bring it here, I won't kill it.”  
“Ah thank you, Erwin!” Hanji threw themselves at the taller man, hugging him tightly

\---------------

Eren stood in a line with the other trainees, Keith Shadis was shouting at them,  
“All right maggots, listen up. I am instructing director, Keith Shadis! From now all of you maggots will be under my direct control, and my word here is law! Any insubordination at all and you will be punished accordingly, is that understood?” a series of mumbles chorused across the field.  
“I said, Is that understood? Answer properly or you will all be doing laps!”   
“Sir yes Sir!” was the new chorus. Eren had decided that he didn’t like this man, what pissed him off further was when he shouted at a girl named Shasha Blouse for eating a potato, it triggered a memory of his people fighting against other humans, his people were starving and dying, unable to eat the crops of the land while the other humans came in and took all the cattle and edible food.

The brunette was currently balancing in a 3DMG practice gear, wiggling around like a worm, struggling to stay up straight. His lips were drawn back in a snarl   
“This is my weapon, I will make this work!” he thought as he swung around, he hates the sky, always preferred to be on the ground, eventually, he gave up and let himself flop backwards towards the ground with a thunk, effectively almost snapping his neck in front of all of his peers.  
“Damnit, I can do this.” The god grumbled and stared up at the director, who, in turn, looked at Armin  
“Let him down, it’s useless.” The Instructure only glared at the brunette.  
“W-Wait, I can still do it, let me try again please” Eren looked up at Shadis, the instructor sighed  
“Wagner, give Jaeger your belt.” After changing belts and being brought up into the air, Eren managed to balance, gently moving, flowing instead of wiggling.  
“Your gear was faulty, the metal filling in your belt are rusty, I’ve never seen this before.” A series of whispers broke out amongst his peers, all surprised that he had been working with faulty gear all day.

Later that night, Eren was quietly walking through the woods, chewing on some sweet dried meat. He was savouring the peacefulness of it all, the hoots of owls, gentle rustling of leaves, the whistling of the wind. Once again Eren sat in a clearing. The clearing was large, larger than the one last night, he could hear a river not far off, the grass was lush and thick, in front of him stood a large stone circle, two rings of stones, the outside had small stones, the second was medium-sized stones and the closest ring to the centre had similarly sized standing stones but in the centre was a massive stone, about as tall as his usual form, it had Pict markings on it, he recognised them, they were for him, the forest deity. A grin broke out on his face, he felt energy pulse through his veins, he placed a wooden mask on his face, it was made out of thick bark and had two circles where his eyes were, he summoned a lantern out of thin air before stripping out of his shoes, jacket and shirt. The boy marvelled at the feeling of thick grass between his toes, he grinned lazily before naturally into dance an old Druid dance as he sang in a language long forgotten, he spun around, moving in a captivating manner, it was a peaceful dance, to welcome Samhain, slow, more focused on body movements, simple steps but complex arms and torso curves, he enjoyed the slowness of it all. The god had the dance down to muscle memory, his feet moved in the dirt, arms moving around his body like a wave, the lantern was loose in his grip, it gently lit up his body, his tattoos on full display, he was unaware to his three onlookers. 

Erwin, Hanji and Levi were currently hiding behind some thick underbrush, staring at a masked boy who danced around a stone circle. The two had drug Levi out much to his cries of dirt, bugs and bacteria. Hanji was determined to find the clearing from the night before but they had gotten lost, the three of them had ended up in a completely different clearing with stones in a circle, Levi had paid no mind to it until Hanji had squealed and brought out their book, blabbering on about the designs, something about a Pict?. They had stayed there for three hours before finally turning to leave after the sun had set but alas, some punk just had to come and dance around the stones with nothing on but his trousers not that the view bothered him at all, tattooed tan skin, glistening with a thin layer of sweat, muscles rippling under the tanned skin, tattooed drawn beautifully the man’s back but Hanji just had to fucking ruin his oggling when they pulled out their book again, gesturing back and forth from a picture to the boys back, upon closer inspection Levi had noticed that indeed, the pattern on the page was similar to the tattoo on the boy’s back.  
“Erwin, he must know something, go out there” Hanji whispered but the commander only shook his head.  
“I might startle him, send Levi.” The Blonde mumbled.  
“No way, He will scare the boy!”  
“Yeah, I don’t wanna go stand near that fucking weird arse kid.”  
“Fine, I’ll go!” Hanji thrust their book to Levi and shuffled only for the ravenette to grab their collar  
“You’ll be worse than Commander eyebrows, shitty four eyes,” Levi growled softly.  
“Fine, you go!”   
“No.”  
“Levi, this is an order from your commanding officer, go out there and interrogate him!” Erwin shoved him out of the bush, this caused Levi to stumble and almost fall on his face if it wasn’t two tanned arms catching him, he shivered at the mud on his hands but quickly snapped his eyes upwards when he heard a sharp breath being taken in, in front of him stood the boy, now closer, Levi could see two viridian eyes staring at him.  
“How do you have that book?” the boy steadied Levi before grabbing the book, reading the cover before flicking through the pages, as if he understood the language it was written in.  
“Oi, that’s mine fucker, how can you even read it, no one should be able to.” The ravenette growled out  
“Yes I know, it is a very old book, it is written in the ogham alphabet.” The boy paused, a look of regret passed through his eyes, causing Levi to raise a brow.  
“How would you know that.”  
“O-of course it may not be, just looks like it ya know, ahaha” The boy backed up slightly, staring down at the short male  
“Answer me now brat, tell me how you know what it means, or I'll tell director Shadis about your little escapade, that’s right, I saw you arrive here in military uniform.”  
“Be careful what you say, what comes around goes around Corporal sir!” Eren stretched to his full human height 6 '4, glowering down at the small corporal, book in hand  
“The contents of this book could be your end, sometimes it is better that you do not know.”  
“The creature Cernunnos, what is it, do you know what it is brat?” The corporal pressed on, ignoring the boy’s warnings.  
“Fine, if you want to know so bad you will have to catch me.” With that, Eren spun around, picked up his things and leapt off into the night, slipping into the darkness, letting the trees create a path for him. Levi snarled something rude behind him before giving chase, running off into the forest after the brunette, trying to follow him but it was becoming difficult in the darkness, the trees seemed bigger, the shadows suddenly seemed a lot darker. Levi was used to killing, being dubbed humanity’s strongest but this was something that he felt he should not mess with, he was unaware of the cost of the chase, he the hunter and the young soldier the pray but every hunter can become the hunted. 

Levi looked around, only to see darkness surrounding him, this wasn’t safe, he had to get higher, he shot out his cables into the branch of a tall tree, landing on it and silently as he could, this was safer than the ground. These woods were causing him to shiver, he was on edge, he knew that this forest had been here since the walls had come to be but how old was it really? Looking at the trees he only saw thick trunks, the trees were old. He shot his pistons out the highest possible branch he would be safe on, now he was above most tree top level only to recoil in..fear? This wasn’t possible though, he must be a hallucination, or dreaming! Yes, he must be dreaming! Nothing could explain those familiar glowing eyes, those antlers that scraped the sky, its body flickering, surrounded by mist. He was careless and took a step back, only to plummet towards the earth, before landing he was caught in a strong grip, the panicked voices of Erwin and Hanji filled his ears, it hurt his head.  
“Shut up shitty four-eyes!” Levi snarled and looked up at the redhead, who in turn sighed with relief.  
“He is okay”  
“Yes, but what you did Levi was stupid, you could’ve gotten hurt.”  
“That doesn’t matter, I lost that brat and the book.”  
“And that doesn’t matter either, we are glad you are safe” Levi only grunted in response to Erwin, secretly glad that they cared but he’d never say that out loud. Both ignoring Hanji’s wine at the knowledge that the book had been taken. 

Later that night, back at the survey corps headquarters Levi sat in his room, quietly getting undressed. He slipped out of his clothes and got into the back to wash all of the grime off of him only to stare in shock at the two thick black bands that were wrapped around his right arm, he wiped his finger over one, eyes widening slightly when a white pattern that he had seen in the book appeared then faded underneath his finger. He poured water over the mark, scrubbing at the skin but the two black lines didn’t fade, they just stayed there, marking his pale skin. He sighed in frustration and got out of the bath, drying himself with a towel, getting into pyjamas and getting into bed. He tried to sleep but his mind kept drifting back to his weird tattoos. Levi gently rang his finger along with the black marks, watching with curiosity as the white lines danced underneath his finger, he blinked, eyelids getting heavy, the man slowly drifted off into a sleep filled with dreams of large stags and that unnerving feeling of being watched

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so slightly longer this time. The dance was inspired by the Druid’s dance in Outlander. The Pict designs are from a real tribe that it much is known about so I used them. The Ogham alphabet is an ancient alphabet used from trees, historians are not sure what the alphabet is for but they think is was made so no one could decode the language, the runes mean Cernunnos as well. What Levi has on his arm is not a soul mate mark and will be explained later on, they were caused by Eren but don’t mean anything romantic, that may or may not come later as I haven’t decided on anything yet.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so, I have posted this on Fanfiction.net but I would rather post it here. For this story there will be Gods in it and Folklore, I will explain the folklore as much as I can at the bottom of each chapter. Some chapters vary in sizes and I am trying to make them longer but I am also busy with revision so please don’t hate me. This story may not be very good at first and there will be spelling mistakes but please don’t hate me for that either. If you can just kinda point them out I’ll try to fix them! No romance as of yet as I know it may not be anyone’s cup of tea, there might be later depending on how the story plans out. In this Eren starts training at the physical age of 15 but he is a God, hard to explain without reading. Every time I make a change to a chapter I will tell you guys the change at the end of the latest chapter! I will try to update regularly as well as I am a free human Mwahahahaha!


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